In Game of Thrones, Daenerys was always the Mad Queen

First, I want to say that I took my time wanting to write this. But, as my wife and I watched as the bells rang signaling the surrender of King’s Landing while Daenerys descended into madness, we both gave each other a look and knew exactly what was coming. We saw whom we watched for 8 seasons a queen breaking chains, ending slavery, bringing down tyrants and restoring order to the people go down the path of her father. There have been theories of Daenerys becoming the Mad Queen, and last night we saw her in full glory. But as I mentioned, I took my time writing this because I feel like there is more to what we see when it comes to the big event in last nights episode. Did we really see the Mad Queen? Or was she always the Mad Queen?

Daenerys has always been shown as the beacon of hope. A righteous and just ruler whose main goal was to reclaim the Iron Throne. In her rise to power, she has bartered for the Unsullied Army to help her conquest, to which she then killed every slaver and sacks the city Astapor. She has ended slavery in the slaver city Meereen and allowed the slaves to be free men and women. But she also crucified 163 masters in retaliation for the same deed the masters had done to children. For the entire series, Daenerys has never shied from doing what she needed to do to achieve her goal. Whether it was right or now, she always felt it was just, even if it wasn’t. She wanted to hold a fair trial to a captured member of the Sons of Harpy, but then executes the man who murdered that member before trial.

We were never seeing a righteous queen rise to power to rule the 7 Kingdoms in fairness by making everyone equals. The whole time as Daenerys’ power grew, she slowly descended into madness with the carnage she’d leave behind. That madness was pushed even further when she fought with the North against the Night King. A crowd cheered when Tormund embraced the Dragon Queen, but more so when declaring Jon Snow a king. The North never fully embraced Daenerys, and she feels every city she’s gone to welcomed her with open arms except in Westeros. And while in Westeros, all her plans of taking King’s Landing have been in vain. She’s lost most of her fleet to Euron Greyjoy, lost two allies, and lost 2 dragons. Had she not listened to Tyrion and invaded King’s Landing, she may have won the Iron Throne with less casualties on all sides. Instead, she also lost her main adviser as well before sacking King’s Landing. In her eyes she may see it as breaking the cycle of tyranny, abolishing everything that was prior to her arrival to bring a new world. But to everyone else, the Mad Queen has finally arrived.